European Championships in Long Distance Triathlon

Hope you all had lovely weekend, mine was full of action again :-)!
It was really not the day I wished or hoped for. Started with the choppy swim where I wasn’t able to stay in the first pack of swimmers. I swam the entire 3,8km on my own having trouble to see the buoys. Three times I had kayakers coming to warm me I am off the course! Long long lonely swim. However you don’t loose the race on the swim.
My luck continued on the bike (180km bike course), on the 43th km I got puncture on tubular tyres (without tubes inside, you use glue to attach the tyre to the rim of the wheel).

I used the pit-stop and CO2 canister, thought it sealed. Back on the bike for 2mins before the tyre was flat again! I tried to remove the tyre, which was almost impossible. It was glued like for Tour De France cycling race!. I noticed at least 5 women and many many men cycled pass. I realized how much time I spent standing on the side of the road. At that moment, this started to play with my mind, tears pouring on my face, shaking hands. I kept trying. Eventually I got it off, put the new one, used second CO2 canister and off I went after 14mins!!!
I gave it absolutely everything to catch the women, so many age group girls and managed to catch some female pros back again, but not enough. I kept pushing until the end, as hard as I could, same on the run, getting my PB in IM distance marathon on very windy day, 3h 24min.

Still, this wasn’t enough to gain more places than two in PRO category after my setback. Crossed the finish line with massive disappointment – 6th PRO FEMALE, but also being grateful for the strength to get on with it without pulling out. As this really crossed my mind. I had to stop thinking “what if “ as there is no if.
Frustration is there as my result yesterday didn’t really reflect my capabilities on the day, legs were there…

For your reference, I finished 5th at ITU European Championships, results on this link.